Griswold's Summer Vacation -- Part I

Shhh! No one mention the car seats to Jim! 

Hope you've settled in somewhere comfy with some power bars and a jug of water cause this is going to be a long one and its only Part I. Oh who am I kidding? The only person reading this post (other than family members who actually attended the vacation) is my mother. *waves* And I've already forced her to look at the 943,256 pictures on my phone. And lets be honest, who doesn't prefer to look at thousands of pictures on a 4 inch screen? If she needs a new eye glasses prescription this fall I only have myself to blame. 

Here is my attempt at summarizing a jam-packed family-filled trip, most of which was spent in our rental Ford family truckster. And much like the pea green truckster featured in the "original" Vacation, ours was returned in less that pristine condition. Still waiting on the insurance claim so keep your fingers crossed!

We had a tumultuous start to vacation, to say the least. After standing in the United bag drop line for over an hour, we finally made it to the front *jazz hands* with 30 minutes to spare before our flight departed. However, this is the moment we realized, thanks to the helpful United agent, that we were in fact not flying on United, we were flying American Airlines. WTF!? 

So we loaded up our NINE bags and two children and made a dash to the American counter, waving as we happened to pass a friend headed to see his family in Georgia. "Hi, Paul, bye Paul" After a bit of confusion as to whether we could even check our bags at this point we left Jim with the bags and headed down to security. Naturally, they were unable to take the bags from Jim so he had to haul six of our bags to another location to be scanned then dropped. I think he appreciated me calling him several times to check on his progress and ask what was taking so long. 

Able to skip to to the front of the entire security line we had 12 minutes until our flight was to take off, clearly it would be smooth sailing from here so we went on ahead and left Jim with the two car seats to be gate checked so I could take the boys to the bathroom. Well we get to the gate but there is no Jim. Yep, you guessed it I started texting and calling. Dude, where are you?? It was only later that I found out the car seats barely fit through the scanners but not in their protective covers, so Jim had the joy of taking them out, scanning and then having to stuff them back into their nice covers. So much for keeping them away from the germy security process. 

We some how manage to get on board even as the gate agent yelled to us as we past her that she couldn't guarantee the plane door would be open by the time we got down the jet way. Spoiler alert: Our bags obviously didn't make the flight. Though at that point I didn't even care I was just so relieved we'd made it. We picked up the car, grabbed breakfast and swung back around the airport to pick up our now arriving bags and headed off to Wisconsin! I thought it was all hilarious about 30 seconds into our flight. Jim, not so much. I'm not sure he finds it funny even now! 

***Note: there are no pictures of this part of the trip!***

Absolutely perfect. 

After an easy peasy five hour drive we checked into our condo at the Yacht Club and checked out our patio which over looked Sister Bay and just breathed in the beauty of Door County. 

I had intended to do the whole two weeks in one post but our airport escapade really did take up quite some space so I'll save the second week for my next post. Here is our little family adventure before the rest of the Morrell family arrived....

Dinner at Al Johnson's ... Swedish meatballs anyone? 

First ice cream of the trip! Which turned out to be more like daily ice cream. 

5:15 am wake up call with gymnastics! Thanks kids. 

Breakfast of champions! Yes, those are pecans cooked into the enormous waffles! 

I can't put this book down, even to walk. I mean, what will catwoman do next? 

Everyone loves Mad Libs!

Bunny spotted early on day two. Yes, another 5am wake up call. 

Ferry to Washington Island, err Mystery Island as the boys called it. 

I'm pretty sure these teeter-totters-of-death were outlawed decades ago on the mainland. 

Super cool fly-in fish fry at the airport! 

First (of countless) mini putt putt excursions.

We even found the magic tea pot! Ok ok, "we" means  Jim spotted it. 

Cheers, 
Mamma, Toad & Frog

A Return to the National Gallery of Art

To quote Colin this morning, "Mom you are a total mess today!" And bless his heart he was right. I didn't have the kids in camps this week because we're heading off to Door County on Thursday so I've really been looking forward to no schedule and doing whatever we want when ever we want. Well apparently I'm not as great with spontaneity as I think I am. 

After hopping in the car to take the kids to see a play of The Cat in The Hat at Glen Echo Park I called to make sure there were tickets, low and behold some overly scheduled moms had clearly pre-purchased all the tickets. boooo! While driving on the Parkway I quickly decided to shift plans and take the kids to the Phillips Collection (my favorite private museum in town) only to remember two exits later that museums are closed on Monday. You'd think after missing the David and the entire Uffizi gallery oh so many years ago I'd remember that. Well  God Bless the Smithsonian for always being open! After circling around National Airport twice we were off to the National Gallery. The boys and I decided to pick our favorite paintings to recreate at home. 

The boys deep in thought over... what's for lunch.

The boys were so well behaved, and even got into the fun of the game. Colin liked the sculptures but Will was not a fan of Degas' ballerina. When I asked what about the sculpture he didn't like Will plainly said, "I don't like ballerinas, Mom." Ok. 

I loved talking to them about the artists and the style of the different types of painting. Colin thought Seurat's pointillism was really cool but his favorite was Claude Monet's The Cradle-Camille with The Artist's Son Jean because "there is a baby in it."  I bet Namma would be happy about that. I still remember her love of his water lilies.

Will's pick was, Gustave Caillebotte's Skiffs because "it has cool boats." This is a new painting to me, though I've written (on another *cough cough* blog) about some of his other paintings.  I loved talking to him about the thickness of the paint in certain parts and why the artist might have chosen to paint it that way. 

After a tour of the gift shop and two stuffed animals and three books purchased we were off to throw pennies in the fountain. I had promised the boys they could make a wish in the fountain before we left if they were well behaved. This, as it turns out was the boys' favorite part of the expedition. And though I repeatedly told the boys not to tell me what their wishes were I couldn't stop them. Colin wished for a water gun and Will wished for more stuffed animals. 

After a little relaxing at home our darling little neighbors came over for some super hero fun! 

All in all it was a great day!

Till Next Time, 
Mamma, Toad & Frog

Rain Rain Go Away... Weekend Wrap Up!

This must be the rainiest July on record! What to do on a rainy day? Why swim camp of course! I mean once you're wet you're wet right? Friday was Colin's last day of camp at our little pool club, Little Hunting Park. Despite the rain he has had a great time making arts & crafts, learning brand-new-never-thought-of-before games, like red light, green light and marco polo. No joke he was completely flabbergasted as to how I already knew how to play marco polo. Colin also announced as I came to pick him up that he "made two new friends, Claire and Tom." There isn't much more heart warming than seeing your sometimes shy and introverted child making friends with kids he's never me before. 

While Colin was splashing around Will and I needed to stay close by the pool incase they cancelled camp so we made a stop into Krispy Kreme which is around the corner from the pool. We spent a lot of time examining just how the donuts are made and then had a little sample. You know, quality control an all!

Once the clouds parted and the sun peeked out Will and I hit the pool. While we were waiting for adult swim to wrap up in the big pool we hung out in the baby pool where Will immediately met a new friend and introduced himself. Despite the fact that she never gave Will her name it didn't stop him from making up a whole host of games with her. I eventually had to drag him away as it was time to go home to boisterous protests about unfinished games. 

"So hey, I'm Will, wanna play?"

Later that afternoon we decided to take Will's best buddy Jay bowling with us. I couldn't believe that this little 3 year old got two spares! I mean they did have bumpers and a bowling ball swoopy thing but he scored higher than I used to back when Jim and I bowled, pre-kids. Will was a grumpy Gus most of the afternoon, and he and Jay decided they were no longer best friends. We'll see if the drama continues, my guess is they've both forgotten. 

Grumpy Gus!

Saturday was really low key, another full day at the pool followed by dinner at Uncle Julios. What beats margaritas, queso and chips? A tortilla maker, natch. The boys were fascinated and Will asked if we could get one for our house. Clearly the kid doesn't know my phobia of excessive kitchen appliances, see also: clutter.

Sunday, Jim decided to wear the bow-tie that Will gave him for Father's Day so then Will decided he also needed a bow-tie to match his "bow-tie friend." Snapped a cute pic on our way out the door to church. Mind you by the time we got to church shirts were untucked, hair was disheveled and there might have been a tear or two. 

Tie Friends! 

Till Next Time, 
Mamma, Toad & Frog

PS If you noticed the new drapes in the background, yes they arrived last week and I'm still totally smitten with them!

July Fourth Blow Out!

Three lollipops later... can you say sugar high?!

As anyone from Alexandria knows, we take our parades seriously... President's Day parade? check. George Washington's Day parade? check check. The official first St. Patrick's Day parade in the country? you betcha. But no fourth of July parade. Wonders never cease. In fact the City of Alexandria will be hosting their celebratory fire works display this Saturday, July 13th but I've digressed. We joined some friends at the Fairfax City parade this year and I'm so glad we did, it was a serious parade! Lasting nearly 2 hours with a host of bands, dancers, shriners mini cars, dancing librarians and even real parade floating balloons! Move over Macy's Parade! Neither Jim nor I had even been to Fairfax.  What? its only 10 miles away you say? What can I say, its out of my bubble. 

Fairfax old Town Hall

Chillin'

Sweet Maisie!

The Hard Times Cafe horse made the parade!

When it comes to lollipops I'm bipartisan! 

Colin and darling lil' Alice!

Afterwards we stopped by a friend's family home near by and had a cook out and pool party. What fun! Will and Colin swam while Jim and I caught up with friends. And if there was any doubt that Will is 100% my child, he refused to stay in the shallow end despite not really being able to swim. That's him, the little dot  across the pool. I guess I should be glad he didn't just jump in the deep end as I did at his age. 

The boys were so beat when we finally got home they literally collapsed the moment we opened the front door.

But a few minutes with Uncle Garrett and they were revived! Special thanks to Uncle G for the legos! Something tells me this is the last time you give legos to someone who then requires you to "help" assemble them! 

Just like the saying goes about trees falling in the forest with no one to hear it... so goes our first big party at the new house! If there aren't any pictures to prove it, did the party really happen? For anyone that knows me I take a thousand pictures a day so the fact that I was only able to snap two says how busy I was. 

Jim has long capped my parties at specific numbers depending on our house size. Our Old Town town house was capped at 30 guests and in our Del Ray duplex the absolute not-one-more-body limit was 22. So naturally we had 100 people at our bbq this weekend! It was chaos and madness but so much fun as well! Jim smoked 60 lbs of brisket! That's right folks 60 lbs! That's a whole lot of meat. We had sausage from Kreuz in Lockhart, "real" Texas Dr. Pepper and Blue Bell ice cream shipped directly from the factory in Brenham. Those were the stars of the party but we also had a number of side dishes plus Texas Sheet cake. Well that and my new favorite summer cocktail, courtesy of Uncle Garrett! His "summer beer" which I renamed the Betty White is light, fruity and refreshing, perfect for the 90+ degree weather we had on Saturday. 

Couldn't even fit all the kids in the picture! 

Everyone loves Blue Bell! 

Will is quite concerned about how Auntie Kathryn and Uncle Kevin can live in a "big apple" 

And what were we up to the day after the big party? 

Yep, relaxing at home! 

Till Next Time, 

Mamma, Frog & Toad